Graveyard Shift
by Faint Brushfire
Summary: A short story that I was required to do for my English Coursework. I got to choose the subject, so I chose Harry Potter. An Auror named Will is put in a rather difficult situation; to guard Voldemort's grave. Unrealistic, Oneshot. T for safety.


**Graveyard Shift**

William turned around, panting at the heavy rustling of the trees behind him. Leaves slowly drifted to the ground, joining the pile of dead leaves. Will shook his head, feeling that his nervousness was something that wasn't expected of an Auror. Will had just finished his training to be an Auror, and was still undergoing training. His superiors thought the best way to help him with his training would be to put him under a real-life situation, so he was guarding a Graveyard. However, it wasn't just a random muggle Graveyard; this was the very same Graveyard that Voldemort had been laid to rest in. This had caused a lot of public controversy as to why Voldemort deserved to be left to rest after everything that he had done. The Ministry of Magic replied by announcing that knowing what he had done was needed to be kept in History to make sure a repeat of it never happened, just as the muggles had done with Hitler and the Holocaust. This had led to a recent 'trend' of Voldemort's era being known as the Wizard Holocaust, many of which say is very similar to the muggle Holocaust as just as Hitler had killed the Jews; Voldemort killed muggles and Muggle-borns.

Will lifted his head slowly, pacing. His long brown hair fell down his face, covering his light blue eyes delicately. He had a sparkling golden dragon pendant with a hint of a pure light red on it for the eye around his neck; it glimmered glamorously in the faint sunlight. He was wearing royal dark blue robes that fell across his camouflaged brown boots. He clutched his mahogany and dragon heartstring wand firmly, piercing his eyes across the woodlands on a lookout for anyone. He doubted anyone would show up, but it had been rumoured that the Death Eater forces knew of his guarding tonight, and being as they knew that he wasn't properly trained, it was a possibility that they would attack.

Hearing some rustling in some bushes behind him, he turned around to them, smelling the fresh breeze of the plants and wildlife around him. Seeing there was nothing there, he sighed and hit himself in the head for his paranoia. He shivered; it was getting fairly chilly. Looking up at the faint outline of the Sun he saw that he was getting dark, and guessed that it was around 5PM as it was currently winter. Will disliked the winter, it was cold and he often got frostbite from it. Although he enjoyed the snow, he didn't like the after-effects of it (nothing that couldn't be solved with magic though, of course). Feeling cold, he considered making a campfire. Raising his wand, he said, "Accio wood". Some wood flew from over near the trees and landed neatly at his feet. He swished his wand to stack them into a circular position, and then decided to make the fire.

"Incendio."

Flames rose, shining brightly in the darkness, like a flare in a dark enclosed room. He felt his body temperature rising as the flames' heat began to engulf him. Breathing out slowly, he seemed to feel calmer. He didn't know if it was the fumes of the smoke or something else; but either way he felt good. Inhaling the toxins of the black cloudy smoke, he couldn't help but wonder if it was doing any damage to his body- come to think of it, he didn't even know what type of wood he used.

Suddenly, a jet of red light hit one of the pieces of firewood and went flying towards him- quick with his reflexes Will ducked and grabbed his wand from his side pocket. Moving into a guard-like stance, he lifted his wand up high and looked around. Seeing nothing but leaves around him and blackness further on, he began to get cautious and weary of his surroundings. Convinced that someone (or something) was near he didn't let his guard down. He turned on the spot- looking around like a guard dog protecting a door. Moving swiftly like a tree in the wind, he began to walk away from his spot.

"Lumos," he muttered, as light spurred out from his wand. Looking over by the trees, he thought he could see a Death Eater mask.

"Stupefy!" Will yelled, having to be certain and not take any risks. It was then he realised it had been a trap. Death Eaters apparated from each corner around him; filling in from every edge of the field that the graveyard was in. Panicking, Will boomed the first spell that came to his head in such a situation.

"Praemium!"

The spell caused a mediocre explosion in front of him, which sent some Death Eaters flying back. Will wasn't certain, but he thought he had seen the guts of one of the Death Eaters go flying- he didn't have time to be checking things like that.

"Stupefy! Pertricifius Totalus! Diffindo!" Will sent spells in random directions hoping to at least Stun them if he couldn't wound them. His heart pounding, blood rushing and mind threshing Will attempted to figure out a way out of the situation. He considered just apparating away and escaping; but that would make him a traitor. The Death Eaters could easily get to Voldemort's body if he did that. Spotting a blue beam of light aimed for his legs, Will jumped over a gravestone which blew up as he did. Realising he was being fired at from all sides, he non-verbally cast "Aguamenti" and spun on the spot, slightly flooding the area around him. Sprinting away from the area once again, he randomly fired spells in all directions- not thinking straight. He could spell blood around him, though he guessed that was from Death Eaters accidentally killing their own.

Will could hear screaming and shouting all around him; it was almost haunting. He couldn't see where he was going very well, though he wasn't concentrating on that- he needed to get away from the horde of Death Eaters. Seeing another spell coming towards him (though this time he failed to even tell what colour it was; let alone what spell it was) he yelled "PROTEGO!". He saw the spell bounce off his magical shield and into another Death Eater who fell to the ground, twitching. Suddenly having an idea, Will mentally slapped himself in the head for not thinking of it sooner.

"Expecto Patronum!" shouted Will hoarsely, releasing his snow white wolf Patronus. He saw it leap at the Death Eaters and viciously attack anything in sight. Knowing that with his current strength and metal state of mind his Patronus would disappear soon, he knew that he would have to think of an alternative strategy. He was fairly certain that there were only around ten Death Eaters left now, which boosted his moral slightly, but not enough for his Patronus to stay stable; he saw it fade around twenty metres away from him. Breathing heavily at the amount of magical reserves he had used so far, even as a fully-trained wizard. He collapsed to his knees, but not before stunning one more Death Eater that was walking towards him. Trying to stand upright, he clutched his stomach. He wasn't sure what he had done, but his weak magical ability and physical state clearly suggested that he had over-done it.

"Diffindo," he heard a Death Eater screech from behind him. He knew that they had been aiming for his neck, but Will cringed in pain as his left arm detached from his shoulder. Screaming, he saw his arm still attached by a mere few centimetres of skin- flesh hung out as blood poured on the floor around him.

He looked up, his eyes squinted and his body twitching, to see eight Death Eaters walking towards him. Will hung his head- this was the end. He waited for the moment where he'd see a flash of green light and it would end, but it never came.

"Crucio," muttered one of the Death Eater's darkly, as if he were spitting. "Just to be... certain. We wouldn't want to have to kill you if you interfered in our plans, now would we?"

Will slumped to the ground as a boot connected harshly with his face. He heard footsteps walk away from him and couldn't help but assume that it was all over, they were going to resurrect Voldemort and end the world as we knew it. He looked in front of him, he could see blood, water, mud and decaying bodies. He attempted to move his head, but he was in excruciating pain and was unable to. Knowing it was the end, Will closed his eyes.

Suddenly, Will heard a loud crack spread out across the land. He somehow got a spur of energy and opened his eyes wide. He struggled to reach for his wand and raised it low.

"Stu... pe... fy," he attempted to say, his voice cracking. A weak red beam jolted from his wand only to fade a few seconds afterwards. Not being able to take any more, Will passed out.

–

Will awoke in an unfamiliar place. He attempted lift his head- immediately blood rushed to his head. Wincing in pain, he tried to keep still.

A woman with dazzling long red hair, freckles and a cute face walked in carrying a vial of electric blue liquid.

"Oh, you're awake. Thank Merlin- I was starting to worry that you wouldn't at all. You're lucky to be alive. Here, drink this-"

She held the bottom of his chin and poured the liquid down into his throat.

"It's best you go back to sleep, a Healer will be becoming soon. They wanted to take you to St. Mungos but I managed to convince them that doing so would just put you through even more stress that you really don't need right now."

Will managed to struggle a word out.

"W-wha...?" Will mumbled hoarsely, his voice cracked.

The woman shook her head and looked ashamed at herself.

"Of course, I haven't explained anything to you yet. I'm Ginny Potter, you're here in Godrics Hollow. We managed to collect you after the battle and bring you here for treatment. Best you just go to sleep now, let the potion go down."

Will groaned and fell back to sleep.

Will looked up, having just woken up. He felt substantially better then he did before, though he still felt unable to talk or move for a long time. Not sure what to do having only just woken up, he attempted to call Ginny.

"Ginny..." he called, his voice still hoarse though the volume was at normal speech level.

As if on cue, Ginny burst into the room, looking nervous.

"Finally, you're awake. I hope you're feeling better. Healer Johnson is here- he wants to talk to you about your injuries and future..." she explained, though she looked like she was hiding something.

Healer Johnson walked into the room, closing the door behind him. He looked grim, his short black hair matching his serious face.

"It's not looking good for you Will... I'm sorry to start off on such a bad note but there's nothing else I can say. Your magical reserves have almost become completely drained- it wouldn't surprise me if you became a Squib after this. Your arm has luckily been saved, it won't work the same as it used to and you'll have slower reflexes but we did the best we could. You suffered a cracked skull and you had a minor brain clot, but that's been fixed up easy. Your body should be fit and ready in a mere couple of days, though it's uncertain if you magical abilities will recover along with him."

"Wait... what? When did all of this happen?" asked Will, not fully taking in everything that had been said.

"The potion that was given to you not only boosts your magical reserves, but it also puts you under a twenty-four hour sleep. We operated on you while you were asleep, curing all your physical injuries," explained Johnson.

Will nodded as he wasn't sure what to say.

"I know it's going to be tough for you Will, losing magical reserves is a serious matter and restoring them is a long and painful journey. I'll be back in a couple of days to check up on your state, until then," said Johnson, picking up his coat and leaving the room. As soon as he left, Ginny walked in looking upset.

"This must be so hard for you... you're an Auror yet you're unable to do magic..." she began.

"No. I fought with honour and battled hard. If I were to go any way then this would be how," replied Will, looking sternly at Ginny. She nodded to show she understood.

"Just like Mad-Eye..." she muttered, then continued in a higher tone of voice, "Harry wants to talk to you, but he says to wait until you're fully recovered as he has something to say you."

Will nodded curtly.

"I look forward to it."

–

It's two days later, Will was almost fully-recovered and was up and walking about. He was waiting for Harry to get home as Harry wished to talk to him about the attack.

When Harry got home, it was already evening. He told Ginny to leave the room once he had walked in and sat down. Harry had long black hair and a fairly long beard.

"Hello, Will," Harry started the conversation. "As you're probably aware, I wanted to talk to you about the attack."

Will nodded.

"Are you aware of what happened after you passed out at all?" Harry asked, itching his chin.

"No, I wasn't told of anything while I was in here because they wanted me to rest," informed Will.

"I'm not surprised, you're magical reserves are so low that you're unable to perform the simplest of spells at the moment... I really hope that you recover and get back onto the Auror team, we need you now more then ever that Voldemort's former Death Eaters have started up their own organization."

Will nodded yet again, then sighed.

"After all I went through on that night, it's unlikely that I'll be returning. I'm sorry," confessed Will, looking down.

Harry sighed and nodded his head.

"I don't blame you. I was hoping that you were stronger and was going to continue, but after what happened to you it's understandable. You don't realise how good of a job you did on your own out there."

Will picked up his wand off of the side table.

"Wingardium Leviosa," he pronounced clearly. The inkpot on the table barely made it an inch in the air before falling down. Will shook his head. "It looks like my days of magic are over Harry, I'll be joining the muggle's way of life."

Harry put his hand on Will's shoulder.

"It's not over yet..." he murmured, "there's still a chance that they could restore themselves. Don't give up on your magical life yet, Will."

Will stayed silent, deep inside his own thoughts.

"Come on, I have something to show you," said Harry, tugging on Will's right arm.

Will obliged and stood up, and followed Harry into another room. In the middle, there was a stone basin with a substance inside that was neither liquid or gas: A Pensieve.

Harry put his wand to the rim of his head and extracted a memory which he placed inside the Pensieve.

"Wish to come in?" he asked. "This is what happened after you passed out."

Will followed and stepped inside the Pensieve.

_A loud crack was made as Harry apparated into the Graveyard. He looked to the right quickly- he saw a faded red spell. He decided that he'd have to check out there later. He ran forward and confronted the eight Death Eaters that were attempting to resurrect Voldemort. They were chanted and had huge Staff's in their hands. Harry ran forward, and wish a swish of his wand two of them fell to the ground. He lifted his wand up and another screamed as he went flying into the air, landing with a thud some distance away. Harry swiftly moved his wand across another Death Eater, causing him to choke and fall to the ground. He finally turned his wand in a circular motion causing the rest of the Death Eaters to slump onto the ground._

_He wordlessly cast an explosion spell, causing Voldemort's gravestone to blow up. Suddenly remembering the red light, he ran back and over to where he thought he'd seen it. He saw a man that seemed to be alive but in a terrible state- blood even poured from his eyelids. Harry picked him up and apparated him back to Godric's Hollow._

Will stepped out of the Pensieve, he had had enough.

"I can't watch anymore..." he stuttered, not believing his eyes. The way Harry took out the Death Eaters so easily without any thought... his limb body with blood pouring from his eyes. It was all too much. Harry stared at Will.

"I wish you luck Will... hopefully you'll be back with the Aurors some day," said Harry.

Will shook his head.

"Unlikely. After that- I don't even want anything to do with the Wizarding World."

**THE END.**


End file.
